One Tent My Forbidden Stepbrother novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Fire Road

"Drive," Perry said.

Blaine lifted his head from the wheel.

"What?"

"You said you wanted to get in a car and drive. So drive." Perry put his boots on the floor and buckled his belt. "I'm here. I'm not going anywhere. Pick a road."

Blaine stared at him for a moment.

Then he started the engine.

He did not go back toward the camp.

He drove north out of Alder, past the elevator and the church.

He turned onto a gravel track that ran up a hillside under dark pines.

A faded sign said FIRE ROAD 9, NO PUBLIC ACCESS.

The truck climbed.

The windows were down and the evening air came in cool and smelling of resin.

Neither of them talked.

Perry kept one hand on the bench seat between them, palm up, and after a mile Blaine took it without looking.

The road ended in a clearing at the top of the hill.

There was a square gray cabin on stilts, with a porch and a broken weather vane.

Below it the whole valley lay open in the going light.

"Fire lookout," Blaine said. "Decommissioned."

"You've been here."

"Once. Last summer. I was taking samples." He turned off the engine. "I sat on that porch for two hours and didn't take any."

"Why not?"

"I was thinking about a porch light."

Perry's chest went tight.

He did not ask what that meant.

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